February 2004

Howard Stern is still on the air in Syracuse, but radio programmers and management across the board are evaluating what the recent FCC and Congressional broadcast indecency hearings mean for their respective stations. The Syracuse Post-Standard got reactions from local employees of Clear Channel, Citadel, and Galaxy radio groups.Source (link may no longer work): syracuse.com/entertainment/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-7/1077788506247541.xml

All this week Howard Stern has been bemoaning the recent crack down on indecency in the media. That chatter will likely intensify Thursday morning following word today that Clear Channel Communications has suspended broadcast of his syndicated program on all six of their stations which air the show.

ESPN Radio has announced who will fill Tony Kornheiser’s shoes after he drops his daily radio show at the end of March. Colin Cowherd joins the network from KFXX AM in Portland. His new show, The Herd, will air nationally from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. weekdays. Kornheiser is leaving to concentrate on his television

570 WSYR has hired a news director. Dave Bullard, who joined the staff in December in a part-time capacity, will take on the full-time job of heading up the station’s news department. WSYR has been without a news director for the past five months following Bill Carey’s move to News 10 Now.

TV Guide is reporting that ‘Stuttering John’ Melendez has signed on to be the new announcer on NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Melendez, who has been a regular on Howard Stern’s syndicated radio show for nearly 15 years, will replace Edd Hall who is leaving to pursue an acting career. Look for John’s

Former Hot 107-9 (WWHT) program director and jock, Jason Kidd, has landed a new programming gig in Austin, Texas at Infinity’s Top 40/Rhythmic station Beat 104.3 (KQBT). Kidd left Syracuse two years ago for stints at WKST in Pittsburgh and Baltimore’s WSMJ. And we also hear that former New City Syracuse program director Alan Furst

Garrison Keillor knows all about cold weather, so he should feel right at home in Syracuse Tuesday night. The host of National Public Radio’s A Prairie Home Companion, a weekly two-hour show produced in St. Paul, Minnesota, will be in town to give a lecture at Syracuse University’s Goldstein Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Doors open

K-Rock (WKRL/WKRH/WKLL) has a new program director as of next Monday. Scott Petibone makes his way to Syracuse from Elmira where he was the operations manager for the Backyard Group. He has also programmed modern rock stations in Tallahassee and Jacksonville. K-Rock also has a new music director and night guy replacing Kevin Kline who

Look for a new voice in the afternoon at Watertown’s Froggy 97 following Matt Raisman’s exit last week. Raisman, known on the air as Bullfrog, moved to Watertown from Regent Communications’ Utica-Rome cluster last March to program WFRY and ESPN Radio 1410 (WNER). There’s no word on where he’s headed.

This year’s keynote address at WJPZ’s 19th annual Radio Birthday Banquet will center around the world of radio ratings. Pierre Bouvard, president of the Arbitron radio ratings service, will be the guest of honor at the February 28th event at the Syracuse University Sheraton which is sponsored by the Alumni Association of WJPZ. For more